Background authentication refresh

ABSTRACT

Techniques for refreshing an authentication token. Access is granted to a secure computing environment in response to receiving authentication information from a requesting computing device. The access is granted for a session and one or more client applications allow secure delegated access to server resources on behalf of a resource owner by utilizing an access token. The access token is refreshed without explicit user interaction utilizing the authentication information for the session while the session is valid. Access is granted to the secure computing environment in response to the refreshed access token.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/826,944, entitled “BACKGROUND AUTHENTICATION REFRESH,” filed Aug. 14,2015, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,270,753 with an issue date of Apr. 23, 2019,the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in theirentirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments relate to techniques for refreshing authentication tokens.More particularly, embodiments relate to techniques for generatingrefresh operates in the background to maintain authentication tokenswithout user interaction to improve the user experience in a secureenvironment.

BACKGROUND

Secure environments require some sort of authentication in order for aparty to be authorized to access the environment. For example, in securecomputing environments a user name and password is commonly required toutilize the computing environment. However, some computing environmentsutilize more sophisticated authentication procedures, for example,two-factor authentication, biometric authentication, OAuth. These moresophisticated authentication procedures require more input from users,which results in a more cumbersome process.

OAuth is an open standard for authorization that provides clientapplications a secure delegated access to server resources on behalf ofthe resource owner. OAuth specifies a process for resource owners toauthorize third-party access to their resources without sharingcredentials utilizing an access token. Access tokens can have a lifetime after which they expire and some reauthorization/reauthenticationis required. This can be inconvenient for a user.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the invention are illustrated by way of example, and notby way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings inwhich like reference numerals refer to similar elements.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a system in which anauthentication token can be utilized.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a technique for providingbackground token refreshes.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a backgroundauthentication token refresh agent.

FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram of an on-demand services environmentwherein an on-demand database service might be provided.

FIG. 5 illustrates a block diagram of an on-demand services environmentwherein an on-demand database service might be provided.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth.However, embodiments of the invention may be practiced without thesespecific details. In other instances, well-known circuits, structuresand techniques have not been shown in detail in order not to obscure theunderstanding of this description.

The techniques described herein are generally described in terms of anOAuth 2.0 framework; however, the concepts described herein areapplicable to many types of authentication. The OAuth 2.0 authorizationframework enables a third-party application to obtain limited access toan HTTP service, either on behalf of a resource owner by orchestratingan approval interaction between the resource owner and the HTTP service,or by allowing the third-party application to obtain access on its ownbehalf. The OAuth 2.0 specification can be found in Internet EngineeringTask Force (IETF) Request for Comments (RFC) 6749(tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6749).

In one embodiment, access (e.g., via API) is provided using a token thatis acquired by redirecting a user to a login page. According to theOAuth 2.0 specification, the token expires after one hour (however, theexact length of time is not important). Thus, a user would have to beredirected to the login page each hour. Redirecting the user forreauthentication every hour can lead to a frustrating user experience.

In one embodiment, a silent request is utilized to accomplishreauthentication without redirecting the user. In one embodiment, abackground redirect (e.g., via an asynchronous JavaScript and XML, orAJAX, call) is performed to accomplish the reauthentication withoutredirecting the user. In one embodiment, the silent request utilizessession information from the user, so the user does not experience anyredirections when acquiring a new token.

In one embodiment, the techniques described herein can be accomplishedwithout modification to the OAuth 2.0 flow. In one embodiment, thetechniques described herein can be provided as browser (e.g., Chrome®,Internet Explorer®, Safari®, Firefox®, Edge®) extensions and/or AJAXcalls and/or a sandbox. Generally speaking, a browser extension is acomputer program that extends the functionality of a browser in someway. Depending on the browser and the version, the term may be distinctfrom similar terms such as plug-in or add-on. Some extensions areauthored using web technologies such as HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a system in which anauthentication token can be utilized. The example of FIG. 1 includesresource owner 100, which can be any entity capable of granting accessto a protected resource. Resource owner 100 can be, for example, an enduser. Resource owner 100 accesses services/resources via clientapplication 120, which can be, for example, an app on a mobile device, aweb page accessed via a browser application, a program on adesktop/laptop computer.

Client application 120 operates to make protected requests (to accessdata/resources) on behalf of resource owner 100 with the authorizationof resource owner 100. Resource server(s) 140 is/are the server(s) thathost the protected resource and can be capable of accepting andresponding to protected resource requests using access tokens. In anOAuth example, resource server 140 provides an application programminginterface (API) to provide access to the protected resource.

Resource server 140 can delegate authorization to authorization server160, which issues access/authentication tokens to client application 120after authentication of resource owner 100. In one embodiment, thecomponents of FIG. 1 can operate according to standard OAuth 2.0specifications. In another embodiment, the components of FIG. 1 canoperate to provide background authentication so that resource owner 100(e.g., an end user) is not redirected to provide credentials (e.g.,username and password, two-factor authentication) frequently.

In one embodiment, session information can be used as substitutecredentials in refreshing access tokens during the period that thesession is valid. Because sessions are typically valid for a longerperiod than access tokens (e.g., 3 weeks vs. 1 hour), the frequency withwhich a user is required to provide security information is reducedwhile still providing a secure environment. In one embodiment, one ormore of the servers providing resources has identity/authenticationinformation for the user from providing a session. The server(s) can usethe session information to communicate with the authentication server torefresh the authentication token. This allows the user to access secureresources with an authentication token with a limited lifespan for thelength of a valid session without repeatedly enteringauthentication/identification information to acquire/refresh theauthentication token.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a technique for providingbackground token refreshes. In one embodiment, session information isutilized to provide a background authentication token refresh that istransparent to the user, which improves the user experience. In oneembodiment, the session can be for an on-demand services environment,for example, a multitenant database environment. Various on-demandservice environment embodiments are described in greater detail below.

Authentication information is received, 210. In one embodiment, a usercan be presented with a login interface (e.g., login screen, biometricinterface, multifactor authentication mechanism) through which the usercan provide the requested authentication information (e.g., username andpassword, fingerprint, secret key). In one embodiment, theauthentication information is received by the secure environment throughwhich the user wishes to access resources, for example, the on-demandservices environment mentioned above.

In one embodiment, the authentication information is used to start asession and acquire an authentication token, 220. In one embodiment, theauthentication token is acquired utilizing OAuth 2.x protocols; however,other authentication protocols can also be supported in a similarmanner. In one embodiment, the one or more servers within the on-demandservices environment can receive the authentication information and usethe authentication information to both start a session and acquire anauthentication token.

With appropriate authentication information, access is allowed, 230.Access can be allowed to any secure computing environment, for example,the on-demand services environment discussed above. Access can beallowed, 230, while the authentication token is not expired, 240. Whenusing the OAuth 2.x protocols, the tokens are valid for one hour;however, other time periods can also be supported. When the token isexpired, 240, one or more computing devices within the secureenvironment can utilize session information (e.g., authenticationinformation required to start a session) to acquire a refresh token,250.

In one embodiment, a silent (or background) request is utilized toaccomplish reauthentication without redirecting the user. In oneembodiment, a background redirect (e.g., via an asynchronous JavaScriptand XML, or AJAX, call) is performed to accomplish the reauthenticationwithout redirecting the user. In one embodiment, the silent requestutilizes session information from the user that has been providedpreviously (e.g., 210) to start the session, so the user does notexperience any redirections when acquiring while refreshing theauthentication token.

In one embodiment, the silent request is provided via a browser (e.g.,Chrome®, Safari®, Firefox®, Edge®, Internet Explorer®) extension withina sandbox in order to provide a secure silent refresh. In alternateembodiments, servers within the secure environment may manage the silentrequests.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a backgroundauthentication token refresh agent. In one embodiment, backgroundauthentication token refresh agent 300 includes control logic 310, whichimplements logical functional control to direct operation of backgroundauthentication token refresh agent 300, and/or hardware associated withdirecting operation of background authentication token refresh agent300. Logic may be hardware logic circuits and/or software routines.

In one embodiment, background authentication token refresh agent 300includes one or more applications 312, which represent code sequenceand/or programs that provide instructions to control logic 310.Applications can provide various functional components of backgroundauthentication token refresh agent 300.

Background authentication token refresh agent 300 includes memory 314,which represents a memory device and/or access to a memory resource forstoring data and/or instructions. Memory 314 may include memory local tobackground authentication token refresh agent 300, as well as, oralternatively, including memory of the host system on which backgroundauthentication token refresh agent 300 resides.

In one embodiment, background authentication token refresh agent 300also includes one or more interfaces 616, which represent accessinterfaces to/from (an input/output interface) background authenticationtoken refresh agent 300 with regard to entities (electronic or human)external to background authentication token refresh agent 300.Interface(s) 316 can include, for example, the various APIs utilized toperform the functionality described above and/or the user interfacediscussed above. Other and/or different and/or additional interfaces canalso be provided.

Background authentication token refresh agent 300 also includesbackground authentication token refresh engine 320, which includes oneor more functions or modules that enable background authentication tokenrefresh agent 300 to provide the records management services asdescribed above. The example of FIG. 3 provides several modules that maybe included in background authentication token refresh engine 320;however, different and/or additional modules may also be included.Example modules that may be involved in providing the records managementfunctionality include authentication module 330, token manager 335,session manager 340 and token refresh module 345. The modules ofbackground authentication token refresh engine 320 can be hardware,software or a combination thereof.

In one embodiment, background authentication token refresh engine 320includes authentication module 330. In one embodiment, authenticationmodule 330 operates to receive and store authentication information froma user. In one embodiment, authentication module 330 controls/operatesthe interface (e.g., graphical user interface) utilized to receive theauthentication information from the user. In one embodiment,authentication module includes, or has access to, secure storage forstoring authentication information and/or related data.

In one embodiment, token manager 335 operates to manage theauthentication token. In one embodiment, token manager 335 operatesaccording to the OAuth 2.0 standard; however, other authenticationtokens can also be supported. In one embodiment, token manager 335includes, or has access to, secure storage for storing authenticationtokens and/or related data. In one embodiment, token manager 335operated through one or more interfaces to securely communicate with anauthorization server or other device to acquire an authentication token.Token manager 335 may receive the authentication token and/or relatedinformation from the authorization server.

In one embodiment, session manager 340 operates to manage access to oneor more secure resources during a session, which can have a limited life(e.g., one day, two weeks, one month, 18 hours). In one embodiment,session manager 340 includes, or has access to, secure storage forstoring authentication information related to session management. In oneembodiment, session manager 340 operates through one or more interfacesto securely communicate with devices within the secure environment tomanage the user session.

In one embodiment, token refresh module 345 operates as described aboveto provide background authentication token refresh operations withoutuser interaction. In one embodiment, all or part of token refresh modulemay be implemented as a browser extension to provide the functionalitydescribed herein. In one embodiment, token refresh module 345 operatesaccording to OAuth 2 protocols and utilizing OAuth 2-compliant APIs torefresh authentication tokens without explicit user involvement. Thisprovides the user with the security provided by authentication tokenswithout the overhead and inconvenience of periodic manualreauthentication procedures.

FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram of an environment 410 wherein anon-demand database service might be used. Environment 410 may includeuser systems 412, network 414, system 416, processor system 417,application platform 418, network interface 420, tenant data storage422, system data storage 424, program code 426, and process space 428.In other embodiments, environment 410 may not have all of the componentslisted and/or may have other elements instead of, or in addition to,those listed above.

Environment 410 is an environment in which an on-demand database serviceexists. User system 412 may be any machine or system that is used by auser to access a database user system. For example, any of user systems412 can be a handheld computing device, a mobile phone, a laptopcomputer, a work station, and/or a network of computing devices. Asillustrated in herein FIG. 4 (and in more detail in FIG. 5) user systems412 might interact via a network 414 with an on-demand database service,which is system 416.

An on-demand database service, such as system 416, is a database systemthat is made available to outside users that do not need to necessarilybe concerned with building and/or maintaining the database system, butinstead may be available for their use when the users need the databasesystem (e.g., on the demand of the users). Some on-demand databaseservices may store information from one or more tenants stored intotables of a common database image to form a multi-tenant database system(MTS). Accordingly, “on-demand database service 416” and “system 416”will be used interchangeably herein. A database image may include one ormore database objects. A relational database management system (RDMS) orthe equivalent may execute storage and retrieval of information againstthe database object(s). Application platform 418 may be a framework thatallows the applications of system 416 to run, such as the hardwareand/or software, e.g., the operating system. In an embodiment, on-demanddatabase service 416 may include an application platform 418 thatenables creation, managing and executing one or more applicationsdeveloped by the provider of the on-demand database service, usersaccessing the on-demand database service via user systems 412, or thirdparty application developers accessing the on-demand database servicevia user systems 412.

The users of user systems 412 may differ in their respective capacities,and the capacity of a particular user system 412 might be entirelydetermined by permissions (permission levels) for the current user. Forexample, where a salesperson is using a particular user system 412 tointeract with system 416, that user system has the capacities allottedto that salesperson. However, while an administrator is using that usersystem to interact with system 416, that user system has the capacitiesallotted to that administrator. In systems with a hierarchical rolemodel, users at one permission level may have access to applications,data, and database information accessible by a lower permission leveluser, but may not have access to certain applications, databaseinformation, and data accessible by a user at a higher permission level.Thus, different users will have different capabilities with regard toaccessing and modifying application and database information, dependingon a user's security or permission level.

Network 414 is any network or combination of networks of devices thatcommunicate with one another. For example, network 414 can be any one orany combination of a LAN (local area network), WAN (wide area network),telephone network, wireless network, point-to-point network, starnetwork, token ring network, hub network, or other appropriateconfiguration. As the most common type of computer network in currentuse is a TCP/IP (Transfer Control Protocol and Internet Protocol)network, such as the global internetwork of networks often referred toas the “Internet” with a capital “I,” that network will be used in manyof the examples herein. However, it should be understood that thenetworks that one or more implementations might use are not so limited,although TCP/IP is a frequently implemented protocol.

User systems 412 might communicate with system 416 using TCP/IP and, ata higher network level, use other common Internet protocols tocommunicate, such as HTTP, FTP, AFS, WAP, etc. In an example where HTTPis used, user system 412 might include an HTTP client commonly referredto as a “browser” for sending and receiving HTTP messages to and from anHTTP server at system 416. Such an HTTP server might be implemented asthe sole network interface between system 416 and network 414, but othertechniques might be used as well or instead. In some implementations,the interface between system 416 and network 414 includes load sharingfunctionality, such as round-robin HTTP request distributors to balanceloads and distribute incoming HTTP requests evenly over a plurality ofservers. At least as for the users that are accessing that server, eachof the plurality of servers has access to the MTS' data; however, otheralternative configurations may be used instead.

In one embodiment, system 416, shown in FIG. 4, implements a web-basedcustomer relationship management (CRM) system. For example, in oneembodiment, system 416 includes application servers configured toimplement and execute CRM software applications as well as providerelated data, code, forms, webpages and other information to and fromuser systems 412 and to store to, and retrieve from, a database systemrelated data, objects, and Webpage content. With a multi-tenant system,data for multiple tenants may be stored in the same physical databaseobject, however, tenant data typically is arranged so that data of onetenant is kept logically separate from that of other tenants so that onetenant does not have access to another tenant's data, unless such datais expressly shared. In certain embodiments, system 416 implementsapplications other than, or in addition to, a CRM application. Forexample, system 416 may provide tenant access to multiple hosted(standard and custom) applications, including a CRM application. User(or third party developer) applications, which may or may not includeCRM, may be supported by the application platform 418, which managescreation, storage of the applications into one or more database objectsand executing of the applications in a virtual machine in the processspace of the system 416.

One arrangement for elements of system 416 is shown in FIG. 4, includinga network interface 420, application platform 418, tenant data storage422 for tenant data 423, system data storage 424 for system data 425accessible to system 416 and possibly multiple tenants, program code 426for implementing various functions of system 416, and a process space428 for executing MTS system processes and tenant-specific processes,such as running applications as part of an application hosting service.Additional processes that may execute on system 416 include databaseindexing processes.

Several elements in the system shown in FIG. 4 include conventional,well-known elements that are explained only briefly here. For example,each user system 412 could include a desktop personal computer,workstation, laptop, PDA, cell phone, or any wireless access protocol(WAP) enabled device or any other computing device capable ofinterfacing directly or indirectly to the Internet or other networkconnection. User system 412 typically runs an HTTP client, e.g., abrowsing program, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser,Netscape's Navigator browser, Opera's browser, or a WAP-enabled browserin the case of a cell phone, PDA or other wireless device, or the like,allowing a user (e.g., subscriber of the multi-tenant database system)of user system 412 to access, process and view information, pages andapplications available to it from system 416 over network 414. Each usersystem 412 also typically includes one or more user interface devices,such as a keyboard, a mouse, trackball, touch pad, touch screen, pen orthe like, for interacting with a graphical user interface (GUI) providedby the browser on a display (e.g., a monitor screen, LCD display, etc.)in conjunction with pages, forms, applications and other informationprovided by system 416 or other systems or servers. For example, theuser interface device can be used to access data and applications hostedby system 416, and to perform searches on stored data, and otherwiseallow a user to interact with various GUI pages that may be presented toa user. As discussed above, embodiments are suitable for use with theInternet, which refers to a specific global internetwork of networks.However, it should be understood that other networks can be used insteadof the Internet, such as an intranet, an extranet, a virtual privatenetwork (VPN), a non-TCP/IP based network, any LAN or WAN or the like.

According to one embodiment, each user system 412 and all of itscomponents are operator configurable using applications, such as abrowser, including computer code run using a central processing unitsuch as an Intel Pentium® processor or the like. Similarly, system 416(and additional instances of an MTS, where more than one is present) andall of their components might be operator configurable usingapplication(s) including computer code to run using a central processingunit such as processor system 417, which may include an Intel Pentium®processor or the like, and/or multiple processor units. A computerprogram product embodiment includes a machine-readable storage medium(media) having instructions stored thereon/in which can be used toprogram a computer to perform any of the processes of the embodimentsdescribed herein. Computer code for operating and configuring system 416to intercommunicate and to process webpages, applications and other dataand media content as described herein are preferably downloaded andstored on a hard disk, but the entire program code, or portions thereof,may also be stored in any other volatile or non-volatile memory mediumor device as is well known, such as a ROM or RAM, or provided on anymedia capable of storing program code, such as any type of rotatingmedia including floppy disks, optical discs, digital versatile disk(DVD), compact disk (CD), microdrive, and magneto-optical disks, andmagnetic or optical cards, nanosystems (including molecular memory ICs),or any type of media or device suitable for storing instructions and/ordata. Additionally, the entire program code, or portions thereof, may betransmitted and downloaded from a software source over a transmissionmedium, e.g., over the Internet, or from another server, as is wellknown, or transmitted over any other conventional network connection asis well known (e.g., extranet, VPN, LAN, etc.) using any communicationmedium and protocols (e.g., TCP/IP, HTTP, HTTPS, Ethernet, etc.) as arewell known. It will also be appreciated that computer code forimplementing embodiments can be implemented in any programming languagethat can be executed on a client system and/or server or server systemsuch as, for example, C, C++, HTML, any other markup language, Java™,JavaScript, ActiveX, any other scripting language, such as VBScript, andmany other programming languages as are well known may be used. (Java™is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.).

According to one embodiment, each system 416 is configured to providewebpages, forms, applications, data and media content to user (client)systems 412 to support the access by user systems 412 as tenants ofsystem 416. As such, system 416 provides security mechanisms to keepeach tenant's data separate unless the data is shared. If more than oneMTS is used, they may be located in close proximity to one another(e.g., in a server farm located in a single building or campus), or theymay be distributed at locations remote from one another (e.g., one ormore servers located in city A and one or more servers located in cityB). As used herein, each MTS could include one or more logically and/orphysically connected servers distributed locally or across one or moregeographic locations. Additionally, the term “server” is meant toinclude a computer system, including processing hardware and processspace(s), and an associated storage system and database application(e.g., OODBMS or RDBMS) as is well known in the art. It should also beunderstood that “server system” and “server” are often usedinterchangeably herein. Similarly, the database object described hereincan be implemented as single databases, a distributed database, acollection of distributed databases, a database with redundant online oroffline backups or other redundancies, etc., and might include adistributed database or storage network and associated processingintelligence.

FIG. 5 also illustrates environment 410. However, in FIG. 5 elements ofsystem 416 and various interconnections in an embodiment are furtherillustrated. FIG. 5 shows that user system 412 may include processorsystem 412A, memory system 412B, input system 412C, and output system412D. FIG. 5 shows network 414 and system 416. FIG. 5 also shows thatsystem 416 may include tenant data storage 422, tenant data 423, systemdata storage 424, system data 425, User Interface (UI) 530, ApplicationProgram Interface (API) 532, PL/SOQL 534, save routines 536, applicationsetup mechanism 538, applications servers 500 ₁-400 _(N), system processspace 502, tenant process spaces 504, tenant management process space510, tenant storage space 512, tenant data 514, and application metadata516. In other embodiments, environment 410 may not have the sameelements as those listed above and/or may have other elements insteadof, or in addition to, those listed above.

User system 412, network 414, system 416, tenant data storage 422, andsystem data storage 424 were discussed above in FIG. 4. Regarding usersystem 412, processor system 412A may be any combination of one or moreprocessors. Memory system 412B may be any combination of one or morememory devices, short term, and/or long term memory. Input system 412Cmay be any combination of input devices, such as one or more keyboards,mice, trackballs, scanners, cameras, and/or interfaces to networks.Output system 412D may be any combination of output devices, such as oneor more monitors, printers, and/or interfaces to networks. As shown byFIG. 5, system 416 may include a network interface 420 (of FIG. 4)implemented as a set of HTTP application servers 500, an applicationplatform 418, tenant data storage 422, and system data storage 424. Alsoshown is system process space 502, including individual tenant processspaces 504 and a tenant management process space 510. Each applicationserver 500 may be configured to tenant data storage 422 and the tenantdata 423 therein, and system data storage 424 and the system data 425therein to serve requests of user systems 412. The tenant data 423 mightbe divided into individual tenant storage spaces 512, which can beeither a physical arrangement and/or a logical arrangement of data.Within each tenant storage space 512, tenant data 514 and applicationmetadata 516 might be similarly allocated for each user. For example, acopy of a user's most recently used (MRU) items might be stored totenant data 514. Similarly, a copy of MRU items for an entireorganization that is a tenant might be stored to tenant storage space512. A UI 530 provides a user interface and an API 532 provides anapplication programmer interface to system 416 resident processes tousers and/or developers at user systems 412. The tenant data and thesystem data may be stored in various databases, such as one or moreOracle™ databases.

Application platform 418 includes an application setup mechanism 538that supports application developers' creation and management ofapplications, which may be saved as metadata into tenant data storage422 by save routines 536 for execution by subscribers as one or moretenant process spaces 504 managed by tenant management process 510 forexample. Invocations to such applications may be coded using PL/SOQL 534that provides a programming language style interface extension to API532. A detailed description of some PL/SOQL language embodiments isdiscussed in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 7,730,478 entitled, “Methodand System for Allowing Access to Developed Applicants via aMulti-Tenant Database On-Demand Database Service”, issued Jun. 1, 2010to Craig Weissman, which is incorporated in its entirety herein for allpurposes. Invocations to applications may be detected by one or moresystem processes, which manage retrieving application metadata 516 forthe subscriber making the invocation and executing the metadata as anapplication in a virtual machine.

Each application server 500 may be communicably coupled to databasesystems, e.g., having access to system data 425 and tenant data 423, viaa different network connection. For example, one application server 500₁ might be coupled via the network 414 (e.g., the Internet), anotherapplication server 500 _(N-1) might be coupled via a direct networklink, and another application server 500 _(N) might be coupled by yet adifferent network connection. Transfer Control Protocol and InternetProtocol (TCP/IP) are typical protocols for communicating betweenapplication servers 500 and the database system. However, it will beapparent to one skilled in the art that other transport protocols may beused to optimize the system depending on the network interconnect used.

In certain embodiments, each application server 500 is configured tohandle requests for any user associated with any organization that is atenant. Because it is desirable to be able to add and remove applicationservers from the server pool at any time for any reason, there ispreferably no server affinity for a user and/or organization to aspecific application server 500. In one embodiment, therefore, aninterface system implementing a load balancing function (e.g., an F5Big-IP load balancer) is communicably coupled between the applicationservers 500 and the user systems 412 to distribute requests to theapplication servers 500. In one embodiment, the load balancer uses aleast connections algorithm to route user requests to the applicationservers 500. Other examples of load balancing algorithms, such as roundrobin and observed response time, also can be used. For example, incertain embodiments, three consecutive requests from the same user couldhit three different application servers 500, and three requests fromdifferent users could hit the same application server 500. In thismanner, system 416 is multi-tenant, wherein system 416 handles storageof, and access to, different objects, data and applications acrossdisparate users and organizations.

As an example of storage, one tenant might be a company that employs asales force where each salesperson uses system 416 to manage their salesprocess. Thus, a user might maintain contact data, leads data, customerfollow-up data, performance data, goals and progress data, etc., allapplicable to that user's personal sales process (e.g., in tenant datastorage 422). In an example of a MTS arrangement, since all of the dataand the applications to access, view, modify, report, transmit,calculate, etc., can be maintained and accessed by a user system havingnothing more than network access, the user can manage his or her salesefforts and cycles from any of many different user systems. For example,if a salesperson is visiting a customer and the customer has Internetaccess in their lobby, the salesperson can obtain critical updates as tothat customer while waiting for the customer to arrive in the lobby.

While each user's data might be separate from other users' dataregardless of the employers of each user, some data might beorganization-wide data shared or accessible by a plurality of users orall of the users for a given organization that is a tenant. Thus, theremight be some data structures managed by system 416 that are allocatedat the tenant level while other data structures might be managed at theuser level. Because an MTS might support multiple tenants includingpossible competitors, the MTS should have security protocols that keepdata, applications, and application use separate. Also, because manytenants may opt for access to an MTS rather than maintain their ownsystem, redundancy, up-time, and backup are additional functions thatmay be implemented in the MTS. In addition to user-specific data andtenant specific data, system 416 might also maintain system level datausable by multiple tenants or other data. Such system level data mightinclude industry reports, news, postings, and the like that are sharableamong tenants.

In certain embodiments, user systems 412 (which may be client systems)communicate with application servers 500 to request and updatesystem-level and tenant-level data from system 416 that may requiresending one or more queries to tenant data storage 422 and/or systemdata storage 424. System 416 (e.g., an application server 500 in system416) automatically generates one or more SQL statements (e.g., one ormore SQL queries) that are designed to access the desired information.System data storage 424 may generate query plans to access the requesteddata from the database.

Each database can generally be viewed as a collection of objects, suchas a set of logical tables, containing data fitted into predefinedcategories. A “table” is one representation of a data object, and may beused herein to simplify the conceptual description of objects and customobjects. It should be understood that “table” and “object” may be usedinterchangeably herein. Each table generally contains one or more datacategories logically arranged as columns or fields in a viewable schema.Each row or record of a table contains an instance of data for eachcategory defined by the fields. For example, a CRM database may includea table that describes a customer with fields for basic contactinformation such as name, address, phone number, fax number, etc.Another table might describe a purchase order, including fields forinformation such as customer, product, sale price, date, etc. In somemulti-tenant database systems, standard entity tables might be providedfor use by all tenants. For CRM database applications, such standardentities might include tables for Account, Contact, Lead, andOpportunity data, each containing pre-defined fields. It should beunderstood that the word “entity” may also be used interchangeablyherein with “object” and “table”.

In some multi-tenant database systems, tenants may be allowed to createand store custom objects, or they may be allowed to customize standardentities or objects, for example by creating custom fields for standardobjects, including custom index fields. U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/817,161, filed Apr. 2, 2004, entitled “Custom Entities and Fields ina Multi-Tenant Database System”, and which is hereby incorporated hereinby reference, teaches systems and methods for creating custom objects aswell as customizing standard objects in a multi-tenant database system.In certain embodiments, for example, all custom entity data rows arestored in a single multi-tenant physical table, which may containmultiple logical tables per organization. It is transparent to customersthat their multiple “tables” are in fact stored in one large table orthat their data may be stored in the same table as the data of othercustomers.

Reference in the specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment”means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic describedin connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodimentof the invention. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” invarious places in the specification are not necessarily all referring tothe same embodiment.

While the invention has been described in terms of several embodiments,those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention is notlimited to the embodiments described, but can be practiced withmodification and alteration within the spirit and scope of the appendedclaims. The description is thus to be regarded as illustrative insteadof limiting.

1-20. (canceled)
 21. A method comprising: granting access, with one ormore computing devices providing a secure computing environment, to thesecure computing environment in response to receiving authenticationinformation from a requesting computing device, wherein access isgranted for a session having an associated period of validity andwherein one or more client applications allow secure delegated access toserver resources on behalf of a resource owner by utilizing an accesstoken provided by a remote authorization server refreshing the accesstoken, with the one or more computing devices providing the securecomputing environment, without explicit user interaction utilizing theauthentication information for the session during the period of validityfor the session while the session is valid by sending at least a portionof the authentication information for the session to the remoteauthorization server to cause the access token for the delegated accessto be refreshed; granting the secure delegated access to serverresources on behalf of the resource owner, with the one or morecomputing devices, utilizing the refreshed access token.
 22. The methodof claim 21 wherein the authentication information comprises a user nameand password.
 23. The method of claim 21 wherein the authenticationinformation comprises multi-factor authentication.
 24. The method ofclaim 21 wherein the session is valid for a longer time period than theaccess token.
 25. The method of claim 21 wherein the access token isacquired utilizing OAuth 2 compliant protocols.
 26. The method of claim21 wherein the secure computing environment comprises an on-demandservices environment.
 27. The method of claim 26 wherein the on-demandservices environment comprises a multitenant database environment.
 28. Anon-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereoninstructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause theone or more processors to: grant access, with one or more computingdevices providing a secure computing environment, to the securecomputing environment in response to receiving authenticationinformation from a requesting computing device, wherein access isgranted for a session having an associated period of validity andwherein one or more client applications allow secure delegated access toserver resources on behalf of a resource owner by utilizing an accesstoken provided by a remote authorization server refresh the accesstoken, with the one or more computing devices providing the securecomputing environment, without explicit user interaction utilizing theauthentication information for the session during the period of validityfor the session while the session is valid by sending at least a portionof the authentication information for the session to the remoteauthorization server to cause the access token for the delegated accessto be refreshed; grant the secure delegated access to server resourceson behalf of the resource owner, with the one or more computing devices,utilizing the refreshed access token.
 29. The non-transitory computerreadable storage medium of claim 28 wherein the authenticationinformation comprises a user name and password.
 30. The non-transitorycomputer readable storage medium of claim 28 wherein the authenticationinformation comprises multi-factor authentication.
 31. Thenon-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 28 wherein thesession is valid for a longer time period than the access token.
 32. Thenon-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 28 wherein theaccess token is acquired utilizing OAuth 2 compliant protocols.
 33. Thenon-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 28 wherein thesecure computing environment comprises an on-demand servicesenvironment.
 34. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium ofclaim 13 wherein the on-demand services environment comprises amultitenant database environment.
 35. A system comprising: a memorydevice; one or more processors coupled with the memory device, the oneor more processors to grant access, with one or more computing devicesproviding a secure computing environment, to the secure computingenvironment in response to receiving authentication information from arequesting computing device, wherein access is granted for a sessionhaving an associated period of validity and wherein one or more clientapplications allow secure delegated access to server resources on behalfof a resource owner by utilizing an access token provided by a remoteauthorization server, to refresh the access token, with the one or morecomputing devices providing the secure computing environment, withoutexplicit user interaction utilizing the authentication information forthe session during the period of validity for the session while thesession is valid by sending at least a portion of the authenticationinformation for the session to the remote authorization server to causethe access token for the delegated access to be refreshed, and to grantthe secure delegated access to server resources on behalf of theresource owner, with the one or more computing devices, utilizing therefreshed access token.
 36. The system of claim 35 wherein theauthentication information comprises a user name and password.
 37. Thesystem of claim 35 wherein the authentication information comprisesmulti-factor authentication.
 38. The system of claim 35 wherein thesession is valid for a longer time period than the access token.
 39. Thesystem of claim 35 wherein the access token is acquired utilizing OAuth2 compliant protocols.
 40. The system of claim 35 wherein the securecomputing environment comprises a multitenant database environment.